Summer time is generally seen as a happier time of the year. It means the sun is shining, trips to the beach and lots of outdoor activities. Children are off from school and families are together. It’s viewed as a time with less stress and more fun. Unless you need to ship a product that is temperature sensitive.

Nearly 70 percent of the freight shipped throughout the United States travels by truck at some point in its journey. Understanding how the trucking industry is performing and where it is forecast to go can make a big difference for trucking companies and those who use them for their shipping needs. Planning is vital for the industry's continued success and it is also valuable to be able to anticipate changes and challenges so strategies to address and combat them can be developed. In order to better understand the trucking industry forecast and expectations for 2018, information and opinions from experts have been consolidated here. That provides a breakdown of what to expect in the coming months and throughout the next year.

The December 18th compliance date draws near for carriers to implement electronic logging devices on their fleet, affecting an estimated 500,000 carriers and over 3.5 million drivers. Electronic logging devices, ELDs for short, would replace paper logs

Many carriers in the less than truckload (LTL) sector are adopting dimensional pricing. A volume-based pricing model for shipping freight, dimensional pricing is touted as a more efficient and fair way of charging shippers. The new method of calculating fees, however, isn’t good for everyone. Many LTL freight companies are making more with dimensional pricing — and many of the shippers using them are paying more.

One of the primary factors that make modern life the healthiest in history is the creation of a safe food supply. From production to transportation to consumption, Americans enjoy protection from many of the dangers that are inherent in the pathogens and bacteria naturally occurring in food products.

If you are a member of the trucking industry then you are probably familiar with the saying, atruckload is not a truckload. While a trailer may appear to be full, often it does one of two things: 1) either takes up the entire floor space but does not stack to the ceiling nor reach the maximum 80,000 lb weight limit or 2) maximizes the weight but does not fill the entire trailer. In this investigative report, we’ve asked transportation professionals for their thoughts on the impacts of wasted space in trailers as well as innovative solutions for solving this problem.

With driver capacity being a top issue in the trucking industry, carriers are investing in recruiting techniques to employ and retain drivers. In a brief interview, Freight Transportation Research Associates’ Managing Director & Senior Consultant Noel Perry explained that over the past three or four years, the industry experienced a driver shortage of 150,000, but that number has drastically increased, and will continue to do so, in the upcoming years. “Now we are at somewhere around 220,000 and we’ll stay in that neighborhood for another year and then it gets much worse.”

As the backbone of the American economy, the trucking industry is also an accurate barometer of its health. This industry alone is the impetus behind the movement of almost 70 percent of the freight shipped in the United States. Knowing what is forecast for 2016 — and beyond — helps industry insiders plan accordingly while also creating viable solutions to any perceived challenges. Key findings, expectations and forecasts, gleaned from industry experts, are detailed and consolidated below.